Rose's Lemon and Lime Marmalade, 454g

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Ladle hot marmalade into sterilised jars and screw on lid to seal. Turn upside down for 5 minutes to draw a vacuum. Turn upright and set aside until cooled. Label, date and store in a cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening. Use a sharp knife to remove ends from the limes and lemons. Slice the limes very thinly. Remove the rind from the lemon and cut away the pith. Finely slice the lemon rind, ensuring you retain all the juice. Roughly chop the lemon pulp. Combine rind, pulp and juices in a large heatproof bowl. (Citrus fruit should weigh about 450g). She was heroic and made a vast batch of Oxford style marmalade every year for the family. I never wanted to be a hero. Just dreamt of making a great marmalade without fuss. Veronica on Working hard on the cottage Oh ... only just found this! What a wrench to leave your beautiful cottage, I hope whoever moves in loves it as much as you do. Iy's such a special pl…

If you don’t have time to make marmalade while seville oranges are in season you can freeze them. But when you defrost them to make the marmalade, add another lemon to the recipe as freezing reduces the pectin levels (pectin makes the marmalade set). Although I have a jam thermometer, I like to be doubly sure of a set, so I do the wrinkle test too. I put 2 small plates into the freezer at the start so I can test for the setting point as soon as I need to. The pith contains a lot of pectin so don't discard any, and don't worry about any pith and skin that clings to the shreds – it all gets dissolved in the boiling. Now tie up the pips, etc loosely in the muslin to form a little bag, and tie this on to the handle of the pan so that the bag is suspended in the water. Then bring the liquid up to simmering point and simmer gently, uncovered, for 2 hours or thereabouts until the peel is completely soft – test a piece carefully by pressing it between your finger and thumb.Boil the marmalade rapidly only once the sugar has dissolved and not before. Boiling it for too long spoils the colour and flavour. Tie up the muslin from corner to corner and add the muslin pouch to the pan – it is the white pith that contains a lot of the pectin in the fruit, which is what makes the marmalade set. Cover the pan with a lid, bring to the boil, then turn the heat right down and simmer, covered, for about 1.5 hours. Add 450ml of the poaching liquid to the pips and flesh in the saucepan and simmer this for 45 minutes. Put all the fruit pips in a bowl lined with a piece of muslin. Using a teaspoon or a knife, scrape the membrane/pith out of the fruit skins, roughly chop in a food processor or by hand, then add to the pips. Tie the muslin with kitchen string to make a bag, then set aside.

Thanks for the reassurance about removing the pith. In the recipe for the Seville Orange marmalade (Feb 2013) at Step 1 it said not to remove the pith from the oranges, so I thought it might be the same for the lemon and lime marmalade too.Living in a town where oranges are one of the main crops is an ongoing trial for me – even the shade trees in our main shopping streets are Seville orange. When I first lived in Turkey, I lived in a place called Turunc, which is the Turkish word for bitter oranges – you couldn’t make it up! Pour the juice/water into the preserving pan and push the muslin bag down into the peel and liquid. Cover and leave to soak overnight to help soften the shreds. If you have not already quartered the citrus fruit shells, quarter them now. Turn them peel side down on to a chopping board and using a sharp serrated knife, slice the peel thinly, almost touching your fingers for a fine shred. Juice the fruit and pour the juice with the water into a large, lidded pan with a capacity of 7 litres. Remove the inner membranes and pips from the fruit with a sharp knife. Leave the pith attached to the peel. Put the membranes into a food processor or mini-chopper and chop finely. Towards the end of the simmering time pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C). Pour the sugar into a roasting tin, lined with foil, and place it in the oven to warm gently for 10 minutes. At this point pop the saucers into the freezing compartment of the fridge.